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Quotes

"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark." - Helen Keller

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

You may never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.- Unknown

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow' ~Helen Keller

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."- Dr. Seuss

"Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it."

"God doesn't give children with disabilities to strong people: He gives them to ordinary, everyday people, then He helps the parents to grow stronger through the journey. Raising a child with special needs doesn't TAKE a special family, it MAKES a special family."Author Unknown

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go – Abraham Lincoln

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~ Benjamin Franklin

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein

The journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives you a fairy tale

Where there is great love, there are always miracles - Willa Cather

The Difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.

Life may not be the party we expected, but while we are here, we might as well dance

"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." -Confucius

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas break day 6

Today we started to clean up. This is never a fun job after the holiday. Toys need to be put away. We need to make room in the closet for new clothes. Organization of the kids toys in their room begins. Blah, blah, blah.

Today - I brought all the kids new goodies to their rooms to put away. I took one look at Finley's closet and knew I would have to start over. It was a crazy mess. I took everything out and over the course of two hours, she and I got it all sorted out and even threw some things away (gasp!). All of her new toys have new homes and she still has room to grow. Whew.

Because that took so long, I didn't get far in Arlington or Cainan's room. I am not looking forward to Cainan's room because he has so many little pieces of toys that I cry every time I think about it. I think I will wait for my mom - the organization queen - to tackle that room.

This afternoon, we went to see Shrek the Musical at a local theater. We had gotten the tickets for a great price, so we decide to go over Christmas break. Arlington and I saw this musical in NYC when my cousin Kirsten was in it a few years ago. It was a great, funny musical.

This cast did a great job. But what made me crazy was the audience. I see now why Broadway has rules about the ages of kids at musicals. Broadway suggests (and usually insists) that the youngest a child can be to see even the KID musicals is 6 years old. (the ones that are not family friendly will say no kids). Now I see why. Today there was no age limit on the kids that could come and within the first 10 minutes of the musical, you could tell that many parents had made a mistake bringing their kids.

The audience was so LOUD that it was hard to hear the show. I have never experienced this before, so I was little surprised by how much noise the audience was making. There was a low murmur of noise during the entire show. People were going in and out constantly with kids. Kids were crying, running in the isles, etc. I should have known when they were serving popcorn, hotdogs, nachos, and pretzels that this was going to be more like going to a circus than going to a musical.

I am used to going in, semi dressed up, and ready to be entertained. I KNOW what to expect at a musical, and my kids understand my rules. We are there to be respectful of the people on stage. With cheap tickets, comes a very different audience. I think a lot of parents saw this advertised and thought "oh! we saw the movie! What a great idea for my 2 year old!".

Not.

No one was even remotely dressed up. There were people in jeans and hoodies. I looked around and saw several adults on their cell phones during the performance, and texting, and surfing the web. Just down right rude. I felt like a musical snob, but it was disturbing! Knowing how hard those actors work on stage, because of Kirsten, it was making me mad that people were being so disrespectful to the show.

The last straw is when a group of kids were running up and down a handicapped ramp on the side of the auditorium. Where were their parents? Where were the workers? Not a single worker was standing at any of the doors to control the crowd. It was just chaos.

Anyway - chalk it up to experience. Now we know - if the price is less than $25/ticket you are going to get a different crowd. And obviously one that has not attended a musical performance before.

Tomorrow will be a blog free day unless something amazing happens. We will be spending the day getting the house ready for my parents visit. Looking forward to visiting with them for a few days.

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We are a family of 5 living in Massachusetts. Mat and I have been married for 16 years, and we have three children. Arlington is 11 years old, and Finley and Cainan are 8 years old. We adopted Cainan from China when he was 14 months old. He was born with cleft lip and palate level three. This blog started out as our journey to bring him into our family and has turned into our family blog. He and Finley are only 30 days apart!! We love being a blended family, and enjoy sharing about our trials and tribulations through becoming one! Also, our daughter Finley was diagnosed in 2009 with Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) a rare genetic eye condition that has made her legally blind. Come and read about our proud family!If you want to read Cainan's story, click here:The Pletcher Five Journey Blessings Times Three: Cainan's Story